Editing Landsoftheblacksea:Main Page/adventures/the scaled god (section)

== Summary ==
A large force of lizard-folk sacked a human outpost near the edge of the nearby swamp (Dire Fens). The party was asked to investigate and stop the attacks.  They journey by sea to a small refugee village on the shore of the swamp, where they met a lizardman who fled his tribe. The lizardman tells them an evil tribe of powerful lizard-folk (the Black-Scales), led by a strange shaman and his new Scaled God, had come to dominate the other three lizardman tribes (the Red-Spines, the Yellow-Tails, and the Green-Backs), and forced them into the war with humans.

The party journeys to the Red-Spine village, offering to help the Red-Spines throw off the yoke of the Black-Scales. The Red-Spine Chieftain asks them to get rid of some orcs who had invaded Red-Spine Territory recently. The party destroys the orc outpost, and the Red-Spines ally with the party. Next the party journeys to another Tribe, the Yellow-Tails. The Yellow-Tail shaman tests the party with a series of riddles, which they solved, and the Yellow-Tails join the alliance. 

While attacking the orcs, Darithe donned a magic mask found during their [[Landsoftheblacksea:Main_Page/adventures/true_faith_murders | last adventure]], which they find is cursed. The lizardmen direct them to a hermit who lives in a place called the Rotwood, a strange part of the swamp devoid of living vegetation and overgrown with huge, strange fungus and mushrooms.  The hermit, Nabu Shum-Iber, turns out to be a retired adventurer suffering a curse that makes him a half-man/half-vulture beast.  He trades removal of Darithe's cursed mask for her magical cloak of concealment.  

The party then returns to complete their mission with the Lizardmen. They manage to arrange a secret meeting with the Green-Back shaman, who recommends that one of them should challenge the puppet chieftain to single combat, as his champion.  Violet issues the challenge, and fights the Green Back Chieftain in single combat, without armor or weapons.  Violet manages to strangle the puppet chieftain to death, winning the challenge.  The Green-Backs then join the alliance.

An assault is planned on the Black-Scale Village, where apparently there are still human prisoners from the recent raids being held, and where the dreaded Black-Scale Shaman resides.  The advice is that if the Shaman can be killed or captured, the Black Scales will lose their will to fight.  The three tribes march with the party to the Black-Scale Village, and the battle is joined.  The losses are horrendous on both sides.  But in the end, the Black-Scales are almost completely obliterated and the human prisoners freed.  Their shaman escapes, however, disappearing into the mists.

The party and former prisoners journey to the nearby temple of the Scaled God, where they think the shaman retreated to.  Almost immediately they are attacked by magic spells from within.  They fight a number of undead animals that guard the temple rooms before finally encountering a human spellcaster.  Many of the party and former prisoners are slain in the resulting battle, and the ones that live (Violet, Fariya, Gabriel, and Darithe) are captured, waking up in iron cages, stripped, bound and gagged.  The group manages to escape.